


. . .

by AKL



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst, Din cares about the kid, Flashbacks, Gen, he cares about a lot of things tbh, i didn't know what to title it so i didn't, let's get real guys idk what this is, what happened between episodes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22541032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKL/pseuds/AKL
Summary: “You gonna name him?” Cara asked once, in the gentle quiet that comes when the suns learn how to rest beneath the earth.“No.”She leveled him with a look that was more unimpressed than anything. The farmers were distant, working, or choosing to give them space. Their voices were whitenoise. “So, what? He's just the Kid?”
Comments: 10
Kudos: 70





	. . .

_ … _

  
  


-

He watched the Mandalorians go from one of the mightiest people in the galaxy to one of the rarest. They were hunted to the brink of extinction, spread thin and bloodless, hiding like wanted criminals. He thought the culvert might’ve been a new chance. Figured that wouldn't last. 

Mandalore had given him everything when he had nothing left. A home, a family. A purpose. Something to  _ believe  _ in. He was willing to die for those beliefs. They were almost all he was these days. 

The little one had nothing, Din knew that all too well. The least he could do was give him the same security, the same compassion, that he'd been offered all those years ago. Even if Mandalore was gone, the Way was not. 

-

“You gonna name him?” Cara asked once, in the gentle quiet that comes when the suns learn how to rest beneath the earth.

“No.”

She leveled him with a look that was more unimpressed than anything. The farmers were distant, working, or choosing to give them space. Their voices were whitenoise. “So, what? He's just the Kid?”

“For now.” He wondered if she could feel him meeting her eyes. The suns were glaring behind her, but with the helmet’s visor he hardly noticed. “He's not mine to name.” 

She smiled, shrugged, sipped her drink. Played with the edge of her knife on the table. “It doesn't seem like he's got anyone else.”

She was right, and it made something in him twist painfully. 

-

“How many ways do you love me, mama?”

“Too many to count. If I could hold every star in my hands and kiss them in the name of you, it still wouldn't be enough.”

The first time Din flew was to Mandalore. The first time he began to see for himself just how far his mother's love could go, she was already dead.

-

“This is the way,” the Armorer said, and he said it with her. 

-

He was there when Mandalore fell. When it was ravaged and raped by the Empire. He watched as the foundlings, the  _ children,  _ got mowed down like they were nothing. He saw the fields go dark, only for the bodies lying in them to get thrown into sharp, horrible relief from the bursts of blaster fire. 

He survived all of this, and he became a hunter out of desperation to keep the Way alive, and he found the Child. 

He couldn't save Mandalore. He couldn't save  _ anyone _ . But the kid?

Yeah.

He could save the kid. 

-

Din had wondered how the Child went fifty years without dying. After he saw an adult mudhorn get lifted off the ground with nothing but what seemed sheer will, he quit wondering.

-

He was a different man when he was younger. He was so  _ angry,  _ the loss of an entire planet fresh on his hands - when he’d decided to partner with Ran and Xi’an and Qin he’d had nothing but revenge on his mind. Whatever he could do to cripple the Empire, he’d do it. Even if it went south of his morality. If it would hurt the Empire. That’s all that mattered to him. 

Eventually it wound up with him getting Qin caught, whether it was due to his brash temper or just bad luck he couldn't say. Either way he cut ties with the others. It was easier. And when he was forced to join up with them again, it made him realize not for the first time how right he’d been to leave. 

-

Din was dying. He knew that. And yet the only thing he could register was the  _ guilt.  _ IG-11 might not have been alive, but it didn't make the act feel any less wrong. 

-

_ “…or maybe he’ll take care of you.” _

It was funny, Din thought, as he pushed the necklace back into the little one’s arms. But he felt like Greef Karga might’ve been onto something there.

He got the ship far enough from Nevarro that it bled white and tiny into deep space. 

After that, it didn't take long for the kid to fall asleep.

It was in this moment; this dark, quiet moment, where the only other company they had were the stars glinting silver off the windows and the gun strapped to Din’s hip, that he decided to say it. 

“Thank you.”

If he'd been watching, he would've seen the way the Child’s ears bent forward to listen closer.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i listened exclusively to the detroit become human soundtrack for this bc what's variety


End file.
